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Sarah Lochhead

Director

Sarah Lochhead (BFA, MA) is the founder, Artistic and Executive Director of Simcoe Contemporary Dancers (SCD) – a not-for-profit professional dance company established in 2009 in Barrie, ON. Prior to running SCD, Sarah worked at the City of Barrie Leisure Transit and Facilities department as Recreational Programmer for Dance at Barrie’s community centres. Sarah has worked independently as an arts administrator and as a performer including with HNM Dance Company, Dance Nonce, and Menaka Thakkar Dance Company. She has trained in the modern styles of Duncan, Humphrey/Weidman, completed teacher training in Limón with Donna Krasnow, and with the Limón Company in NYC. She holds intermediate ballet certificates in RAD and Cecchetti. Her work has been acknowledged through a Top Citation award from the National Dance Educators Organization (USA) and the receipt of grants from the City of Barrie, the Ontario Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Sarah Lochhead's Work

Writers & Readers

In 2016, in celebration of Xing Dance Theatre’s thirtieth anniversary and an eight-year sabbatical from their previous production of The Nutcracker, choreographer Xing Bang Fu and French Canadian professional ballet dancer Simon Sylvain Lalonde presented a new interpretation of the classic holiday tale with the intention of exploring the boundaries of gender and identity entitled The Nutcracker Doll. This year’s production of the work focuses on the central theme of parenting, exploring how a parent can guide a child to confront personal challenges and realize their own ways to express themselves.

On the Ground

On June 2, Canada’s National Ballet School’s (NBS) hosted Sharing Dance Day at Yonge-Dundas Square in Toronto. The annual event is NBS’s flagship community outreach initiative, which offers free dance programs to the public. Toronto was just one out of the five cities to host official Sharing Dance events, with other cities including Halifax, Montreal, Winnipeg and Calgary. As part of the event The Dance Current asked attendees to tell us about a dance-related topic or artist they’re interested in learning more about.

Dancing to Learn shows students at Perth Avenue Public School and dance educator Arwyn Carpenter in action – exploring, creating and moving together in the gymnasium. Peppered with comments from the students and Carpenter’s insightful articulation, the video demonstrates the benefits and transferrable skills facilitated through dance.

Four months of production, with over 2100 individual drawings, culminates in three minutes of bachata technique expressed in animation. Phases of Dance by illustrator, animator, bachata dancer and instructor Iveta Karpathyova explores the movement potential of rotoscoping in documenting embodied knowledge.